Sur-Mètre
by le-jhake
Summary: The world has been stripped of the Symbol of Peace, his pyrrhic victory only the beginning of a new era of uncertainty, but very possibly a slim hope for lasting peace - Explore the worldwide fallout of the end of the Symbol of Peace after the events at Camino Ward in the United States. Updated to an M rating for scenes of Graphic violence and swearing in upcoming chapters
1. A World Recovering (Meterro : Origin)

**_I'm merging "World Recovering" and "Dylan Meterro: Origin" - not a total rewrite, just to give a better first impression._**

* * *

A WORLD RECOVERING :: PROLOGUE

* * *

The events at Camino Ward dealt All-Might a serious blow. His pyrrhic victory came at great cost. The villain, All-For-One, exposed his frailty, and now his disability, not only to the common civilians, but to villains and heroes across the world. In the immediate aftermath Japan was left reeling at the loss of one of the most iconic heroes of the past decade, possibly in the history of Heroics as a profession, of that there was no doubt. Their problems weren't isolated though, in the United States and Europe, similar situations would soon come to a head. If the lead hero in a country could be bested, even someone with the renown of All-Might could be crippled, and forced out of the job, then other Pro heroes would have to step up and many governments feared that some of theirs would not be able to keep up. This led to several acts of desperation to crackdown on villain activity before the villains struck first, not all of them worked.

Some time has passed since the events at Camino Ward, and somehow Japan and the wider world as a whole made it through. The world quite simply went on, even though many countries walked on a knife's edge, Several major countries faced down protests and petitions to restrict or even prohibit Quirk-use outright by anyone but the military, or much worse stared down the threat of Quirk-enhanced civil wars.

There were without a doubt threats to this shaky peace, often times with a now worldwide Villain's Gallery pulling strings to try to offset any gains made by any one country's hero associations, but the world continued to progress, sometimes burying the failures and successes of the past, for better or worse. All the while a new generation of heroes aim to keep the villains of the world at bay and look to succeed the now retired Symbol of Peace...

* * *

DYLAN METERRO :: ORIGIN

* * *

Outer West Side Chicago, Medinah, Illinois - 3 years after All-Might's fight in Camino Ward

"Dammit!" Glancing at his watch, a young man in bright orange polo shirt swore, sprinting after chaining up his bike towards a set of double doors. Even using Overclock on his way there to speed up his reflexes and try to accelerate his movement, the young man somehow managed to be late to work again. He begrudgingly fixed his apron and hat after he walked in the store-front and braced for the worst.

"Late again, aren't we, Mets?" That was the third time this month, he was lucky his manager hadn't fired him a week ago after missing more than half of one of his shifts.

"I'm sorry, Dan, I'll try not to let it happen again." Dylan Meterro, quickly heading back to the counter and washing up to join the rest of his crew, knew what was coming later that evening.

"If it weren't for your quirk being as useful as it is here..." Dan trailed off as more orders came up. What his boss implied didn't bode well for Dylan, but the rush was underway so he had a little bit of breathing room before things hit the fan. Since graduation Dylan hadn't really been in touch with many of his old friends from school, but had kept busy working at a restaurant just on the edge of what could be called Chicago-proper. He had worked at "Leon's" since the end of his sophomore year of high school, working as a busser and dishwasher throughout. Recently he had been making his way up into the prep-kitchen and even served customers at the end of the night after the rest of the servers had left, it was rough work, but it kept him busy. Overclock worked wonders for him not just in this job, before his quirk manifested the then fifteen-year-old had been a standout in school for the longest time, but Overclock's mental acceleration aspect improved it exponentially. This only continued to translate into more and more advanced classes as Dylan was soon set to attend one of the best regional Quirk Studies schools in the area. Even with college courses on his docket, Dylan barely had to try to keep even with his classmates. But the ease, no, the simplicity of the past was going to remain there.

At the end of his freshman year of college, just over a year ago, there was, to say the least, disaster. A duo of incredibly powerful monstrosities escaped a Biological Quirk Studies laboratory and wrecked the campus, killing several hundred people before being wrecked themselves by the star of the Chi-town Hero Agency- and the #1 hero in the U.S.- **Warhammer**.  
With federal funding all but gone after the clear breach in human biological study's ethics, not to mention the numerous civil suits being levied and *Federal* criminal charges that the project leads faced, the Midwestern Quirk Studies Institute was shut down, and by the end of the investigation, a small handful of it's staff and board members had been revealed to be Villain's Gallery sympathizers, if not members themselves, and had been locked in prison

Dylan shuddered. He didn't like remembering it so vividly, his being on the third floor of the Support Engineering Wing that day. He had finished his laboratory prep ahead of the rest of his team and had snuck a glance out to the campus commons, only to see two jet black muscled monstrosities standing almost at attention while a third figure pointed at the Campus Administration Tower. _WAIT_ , his brain threw up a bright red flag, as quickly realizing the error as he had made it on the order he had just set to cook, the twenty year old scaled back using Overclock for a minute, and passed most of the rush like the rest of his co-workers. A mental fog just skirted the edge of his consciousness now if he didn't use Overclock to accelerate his own cognition, but overusing it was the reason he could only manage four hour shifts before outright collapsing from exhaustion. The first time it happened, his boss and co-workers definitely hadn't been happy when they found him passed out in the dining room he was supposed to clean.

Ultimately his quirk both limited him and held him aloft. This often led to him having little interest in talking with those who couldn't keep up with him, and his co-workers often repaid him in kind.

Dylan Meterro was always a bit of a loner, a fan of Heroes but never quite wanting a piece of that life. His intelligence had quickly made him the favorite of the jocks in middle school and high school, but often for the wrong reasons, namely them trying to cheat off of him and Dylan inevitably confronting them about it. Dylan ended up often involved in scuffles even getting into one for goading one of the Football players from MQSI a year before he was admitted to the school. But no matter how quickly they moved, Dylan would for all intents and purposes push into something he often jokingly called Overclock-Beyond and not only enhance his cognition but his reaction ability as well. He had either been able to outrun or out-think most who tried foolishly to throw a punch in his direction, and Dylan wouldn't lie if asked whether or not he smiled at every bully who had ended up face first in a mud puddle at the end of their bouts  
Dylan was full of mirth and energy, even after his late arrival and quirk overuse, for a handful of reasons, one, the thought of one of his face-down bullies, and two, the rush was over. Dylan's mirth quickly evaporated when he realized Dan was gesturing for him to head upstairs to the office...

* * *

"Suspended?!"

"Until you can learn to show up on time. I've got way too many people who need the hours you're literally throwing away. I've talked it over with Marcus, he's giving you the next two weeks to figure out how, not that it should take you a minute." Dan looked away from his scolded charge to the desk. He wouldn't lie to Dylan, this was an issue, the boy worked some 25 hours a week at Leon's just enough for him to cover base on the dinner rush and into the early evening, and he had three or four solid hires just waiting to take Dylan's position, and the other managers weren't so tightly lipped.

"No." Dylan looked back at Dan and met his scolding glare, this fire in his eyes seemingly from nowhere, "Dan, I've worked here for-"

"Three years. Dylan, you've worked for Marcus Leon and I for coming up on three years, but ever since that business at MQSI, you've almost seemed like a different person. That steady hand moving quickly and doing what needed to be done, it was shaken. I don't know by what, and if half the stories are true then I don't want to. I don't know how I can put this other than I've seen you do better, I _know_ you are better than this, and I'm giving you some time to cool off and figure it out for yourself.

"That's not what I meant, Dan," Dylan locked gaze with his boss, putting to words that flame not kindled by disdain for work. If anything Dylan would often give one-hundred-ten percent when everyone else needed it. This flame was that of curiosity, of what the world might hold for him if he stretched out, something he hadn't done in quite a while, "I meant that I had worked here for so long. Even with college, I've seen so little, and I need to branch out."

"So, should I-"

"Consider this my two week notice."

* * *

 _ **AAAAAAAND CHAPTER. Hope you all enjoyed this one, more is on the way soon!**_


	2. A World on its Head (pt 1)

_**Hello everyone, a little earlier than I had initially thought, but I think I did alright considering.**_

 ** _I believe it goes without saying that any locations, institutions, addresses (electronic or street) in the US are not only entirely fictional, but also non-canon to the main bit, this is Fan-fiction after all._**

 ** _Work and a broken down car have kinda thrown a wrench into my plans for the next week, so the next update may be a while out yet while I put those two situations to bed. Don't worry, I will do my best to get it to you before the 28th of the month._**

* * *

 _As the dust from the crushed brick and busted drywall settled for a moment, Dylan seized his chance and ran from the coal skinned humanoid. He had gotten the rest of the students in the lab out, if only moments before the creature shattered the window and most of the wall on entry. Dylan didn't look back, he just bolted for the door to the lab's attached library, the opposite direction from the main exit. The young Meterro knew it was reckless, but with a distraction, the others could get away for sure. Even with Overclock active, Dylan still felt like he was moving at normal speed, even struggling to act beyond base instinct. The freshman even then sure that the creature would catch him and beat him into a fleshy version of what the pair had done to the Campus Administration Tower. With eyes full of terror, he stole a glance as it paused after smashing through the wall into the attached library._  
 _The creature had an exposed brain, shielded with a majority of his toothed beak of a face by some sort of helmet and face-mask. As its eyes flicked open they instantly fixed on him._

 _With nothing in his body other than paralyzing fear, Dylan waited for the end to come.  
_  
 _But it never came, in a sudden gust of pressure, the outside wall of the narrow room caved in._

 _Time seemed to stop as a hero's battlecry filled the room,_

" **DREADNOUGHT IMPACT!** "

 _Just as suddenly the monster had been pinned against the interior wall by a tremendous blow from a man dressed in a Navy blue jumpsuit, with orange and yellow streaks almost like lightning crossing the front of his bulked up chest. The sheer pressure from both the monster's impact on the wall and the titan of a hero on the monster sent Dylan flying and slammed him into the bookshelf up against the wall._

* * *

Dylan sat up, awoken with a start. He had been having the dream again; his panicked breathing was evidence enough.  
After a quick look at the clock he confirmed the reason for his fatigue after the terror had subsided. It was 6 in the morning. He had only slept a few hours, the nightmare was partially to blame, as was the chill in the room. It was late August, but the weather had already taken a more fall-like turn. Not that he would complain, it would make his shift that evening so much cool-

Meterro paused, as stunned as he was after waking up. He didn't have a shift that evening, or _~any~_ more at the restaurant. What was supposed to be a matter of simple discipline for Dan- the manager who had helped Dylan regain his confidence and composure countless times after suffering the continued aftereffects from MQSI- to handle, Dylan made into a verbal grudge-match. His verbal vitriol forced one of his co-workers to haul him out of the store.

"Former co-workers," he said, audible to no one but himself.

Sure, he regretted that it came to a head that way, but inevitably Dylan's nonchalance and penchant for forestalling issues wouldn't have let that situation play out too differently.

 _I'm going to need to find a new job_ , _quickly_ , the young man thought, _my next- no-_ last _paycheck comes in next week, but rent is due on the_ _fifth, and I'm pretty sure I used up the last of my bread. Shit_.

A soft buzz came from his phone. He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to answer it, whatever it was, whoever it was. He just wanted to be alone for a moment. Only when the buzz repeated did Meterro check it.

A pair of email notifications, the likes of which he wouldn't usually check. the subject on the second one, it intrigued him, and more importantly, played to his situation. He figured he would look, even if just this time.

 ** _to: dylmet_147  
_** _ **From: mwha_manpower_logistics**_

Subject: Accepting new Hero/Sidekick Applicants

 _Do you have a good handle on your Quirk? Do you want to live life on the edge, hunting the villains who would uproot everything this society holds dear? Are you searching for new employment opportunities that will make a difference in this world for the better? Well then the Midwestern Heroics Agency needs you!_

 _With Dental, Eye and Health insurance qualification after 3-months, and 401k available after 6, it just goes to prove that being a Hero pays, in more ways than one!_

 _Interested Applicants must be willing to take a 6-week certification course and sign an agreement to earn a United States Provisional Heroics License within 18 months of hire date_

 _Send any relevant resumes and/or a copy of the attached application to_

United States Heroics Agency:: Midwestern Regional Office  
CO: Martin Byron  
12204 N Capital Avenue: Suite 12C  
Chicago, Illinois, 60616

 _or our E-mail address..._

Spam, or some kind of prank. At least that's what Dylan would usually consider it, but that ".gov" didn't lie. This was the real deal.

Heroics, not the first place he'd think to go to look for work in Chicago, but not something he'd keep out of mind completely.

 _I might have to come back to this._

* * *

Three days went by without much progress for Dylan on the job front. He had looked to other restaurants within biking distance, but they were full up on staff, even with fall ending and the National Heroics Convention only a month out. The most common excuse was, "We won't need the staffing for just the weekend event." the loss of MQSI hit Chicago more than just academically, but it wasn't the first blow. After the sensation in the news about All-Might's retirement, Endeavor's succession, and what was now dubbed the "League" effect that started over in Japan, people had a sour taste in their mouths whenever Quirks were mentioned, much less when terrorists used theirs to practically wreck one of the top US Quirk colleges. He thought about going back, apologizing to Dan and Marcus. Asking, no, begging them to give him his job back, allowing him to return to some semblance of the simplicity of years now gone by. The young man considered it, even if just for a moment, a five minute long moment. One that would have lasted longer were it not for a text message breaking Dylan's attention.

~ _Hey, Dyl, come outside! me and ben have something to show you!~_ Natalie, she was one of the few things even close to right with his life, a good friend, one that had helped see him out of the worst of what not going back to school did to Dylan's psyche; not to mention one of the few people that tried to support him in any capacity beyond just the encouraging word. Though his parents had never really let him want for much as a child, they were- to put it bluntly- the kind of people who would push God and spirituality as the solution to his crises. Nat had never once thought to bring any god as his cure-all, and he often thanked her for it.

It often made him wonder, seeing the news, what kind of just god would allow a pillar of virtue like All-Might, a champion of everything good about not just heroes but humankind as a whole, to suffer such grueling injuries at the hands of what the world could only assume was his foil, and to allow any of that foil's machinations to have any measure of success to begin with.

~ _Hey, are you coming out or not?_ ~ Dylan would often joke that Natalie secretly had a mind-reading Quirk, but she seldom laughed at it.

~ **yeah, be out in a sec** ~

Natalie was Quirkless. In a country that claimed to give equal protection under the law to it's people, it would seem to Dylan that since the emergence of Quirks in the majority population, those without had been treated as less equal more times than people cared to admit. So long as quirk effect only affected yourself and didn't endanger anyone else, in the United States you were free to use it as you needed. That allowed some people to shine in ways that had never been possible before the emergence of quirks, but it also left those without further and further behind.  
Dylan had more than one quirkless person in his graduating class from high school, which considering Chicago shouldn't have been all that surprising, except for the fact that he and other top-tier students had to compete against one for the top spot in their graduating class, ultimately he decided to go without to try to even the playing field between them, and he was punished for it. Three other kids with memory- or intelligence-based quirks ended up beating both her and him by graduation, and that meant lost scholarship opportunities. Dylan would often sift through his mind to try to remember that particular girl, but he never could recall her name.

After slipping on what he called "proper" jeans and his signature hoodie, Dylan threw his phone in the big pocket. After locking up his apartment and popping outside, he saw two of his best friends.

"Well, Mets, welcome back to the outdoors in this great, windy, concrete jungle."

"Nice to see you too, Ben."

"Still sporting that lime green, I see. Who are you, that new 'Capable Hero' touring over in LA ?" Natalie joked,

"I've heard good things about that "Deku" guy, seems as he was one of All-Might's students. It's kinda hard to believe he's two years younger than us, and already making waves here in the States." Ben wondered aloud.

"He looks pretty modest, but have you seen that guy's hood. When he wears it, he looks like some kind of fox, no joke." Dylan had seen the news stories of the past two days, He'd have to be living under a rock to miss them. Blogs and Editorial magazines like the _National Inquest_ were just going ham, trying to figure out where the "Capable Hero, Deku" hailed from, when push came to shove about it, too many conspiracy theories were touted as fact about this newcomer on the pro scene. Moreover within a day, the guy had a Global Hero Fan Forum thread dedicated entirely to figuring what his quirk really was and what it did. He had come out with it as "Super Power" in more than one press conference considering the sheer number of people he had saved while intervening at the Beverly Hills Noumu attack, but based on the sheer viral nature of the GHF forums, and that thread in particular, few really believed him. Only one other pro hero had such mysterious origins, much less the quick rise to fame, the now retired Symbol of Peace himself. More than one of the less-than-off-the-wall theoretical crowds believed him to be All-Might's illegitimate son.

"So, Dyl, are you going to ask what we brought?" Natalie was markedly less affected by the discussion of the hottest new pro hero, seemingly more focused on the trunk of her and Ben's car. It was just how she was, both Ben and Dylan knew that. Whenever Nat got someone a gift, she always loved seeing people's reaction to it.

"I don't know," Dylan smirked, "What did you bring, some kind of new- What the hell?!"

His voice faltered as he shot a glance down the block and forced himself to do a double-take. A man stood a ways down the street on top of one of the apartment buildings flanked by two monstrosities too alike to something he'd seen before. Natalie and Ben turned to face the scene when they saw Dylan's awestruck gaze. from that rooftop, a strange voice boomed, as if there were some sort of loudspeaker within their collective minds

" **Ah, would you just look at this peaceful neigborhood...** "

* * *

 _ **And that's where I'm leaving you guys for right now, be ready for ch 4. we're gonna have us a good ol' fashioned fight scene!**_

 **PLUS ULTRA!**


	3. A World on its Head (pt 2)

**Good day again to all of you, hope the day finds you all well.**

 **I know I said there would be a fight scene but I had more lead-up than originally planned. Anyway, HERE WE GO!**

* * *

 _Dylan's voice faltered as he shot a glance down the block and forced himself to do a double-take. A man stood a ways down the street on top of one of the apartment buildings flanked by two monstrosities too alike to something he'd seen before. Natalie and Ben turned to face the scene when they saw Dylan's awestruck gaze. from that rooftop, a strange voice boomed, as if there were some sort of loudspeaker within their collective minds_

 _"Ah, would you just look at this peaceful neighborhood-_

 _It'd be a shame if it all came crashing down."_

* * *

Chicago, since the advent of Quirks, had gone through two distinct trends concerning crime, an unprecedented uptick in criminal activity after Quirks started propogating in the majority population. Its violent streak lasted for years, even persisting under martial law, for a good five years, Chicago was a warzone, Quirked and Quirkless duking it out just to survive. What followed was a general downward trend coinciding with the rise of All-Might and his inspirations the West's great names such as the Chivalrous Hero, Excalibur in England, Iron Bear in Russia, and of course, The Impactful Hero, "Warhammer" in the U.S. Now, a new rise of major criminal activity following All-Mights retirement had slowly been working its way westward. The U.S. and Canada being the last to hear about and see what had transpired, but it was not the last to see major villain attacks, MQSI was the first ground zero in the United States akin to the events at Yuuei's USJ. The majority of the world recoiled at the story that All-Might had been pushed. The Symbol of Peace had been wounded, visibly, even if the footage never hit the public, People saw that as the beginning of the end of the All-Might.

With the ease in Warhammer's handling the Noumu that had somehow been brought to America- the import of a pair of them after their supposed confiscation by the Japanese government was a disturbing fact within its own right- even just 6 months afterwards, Americans still maintained that hope that heroes could still be the pillars that held up society. Common citizens relied on them, as much as the police, to keep them safe. Even and especially in the town Warhammer called home, people still trusted pro-heroes.

Chicago at its heart had, in the past, been a thriving hub of activity where the strongest, most cunning, and the wisest won out in the struggle that was intrinsic to human existence. In the present day, it was just a place for people to get complacent, to grow fat while they wasted their lives and the potential of their quirks.

In that moment in the windy city, the darkly dressed figure was pensive, even after his bold announcement. The thought of the pacification of what was once such a viscerally, naturally governed city disgusted him to no end. Isaiah Macht was thoroughly revolted by the state not only in Chicago, but anywhere so called Hero's meddled with the natural order, all for the sake of so called "ethics."

Human beings were flawed, and their choices and ethics even moreso, but those with strength and the brains to use it, those with power could create the lasing progress that would give the stronger their due. People like him would free the strong from their yoke of civic duty, unshackle those held back by the fear of using their powers and put them back where they belonged- at the top of the food chain.

"Ah yes, marvelous there will be someone to see this display," the seemed elated that there would be civilians who he knew would feel the sheer terror as his "Noumu-" that's what his handlers had called them- would wreck this block and allow Macht to pick through the remains. The fences he had set a low price for most of the stuff he brought in but Isaiah had managed to make a solid income, considering all of it was pure profit.

This had only been his M.O. for the past few weeks. When he was called from an unidentified number about housing some animals, he was admittedly curious to see what exactly these "animals" were. Isaiah was, at least when he opened the huge crates mysteriously left in the warehouse his uncle owned just across the state line, taken aback by their appearance- to say nothing of the amount of life support equipment involved.

The creatures were universally recognized after their appearance- and more importantly their destructive power- especially by any former victims.

"I sincerely hope you don't have anything important here. You see, I'm about to do some _renovation_ ** _._** "

* * *

"Oh shit!" Dylan's mind replayed the chase through the lab all over again. His mind replaying how the creature just tore through brick and cement like butter. It was MQSI all over again. Only this time, there would be no savior, no Hero to stop these absolute beasts from unleashing hell upon the city, much less the block.

"Natalie, get inside, head to the basement!" Ben demanded, hardly wanting to see his girlfriend of a year and a half killed.

"Ben, Dylan..." She started towards Dylan's apartment building trying to drag Ben and Dylan with her, but neither would budge.

"Ben, go with her, and call the cops." Dylan's stare hardened as he looked to the trio on the rooftop

 _"Dyl, don't even think about it."_ Dylan often would recount his experience in the attack to Natalie. How Warhammmer had commended him for quickly getting his classmates to safety, only to scold him meer moments later for making himself the creature's bait. Natalie knew _exactly_ what was going through Dylan's mind.

"It's too late to not," To Natalie and Ben, he spat out the words.

The world began slowing to him as it always did when he would use Overclock. he could see the branches of the trees sway half the speed they normally would. He remembered the fight or flight choice he always had, and if these creatures had even half the strength of the ones at MQSI, Dylan wouldn't survive a single blow. Running, forcing them to give chase with something to draw them away, even if just his life, that was what Meterro planned to do. Maybe Ben saw his plan, maybe he just wanted to save his girlfriend, but all the same Ben drug Natalie to the door after Dylan had handed them his keys. If this didn't work, there would be worse things to deal with than his landlord being angry about off keys to a non resident.

The Noumu took off at their master's command, beginning to lay waste to the nearest two buildings, tearing holes in the outer walls and raging about like bulls in a china shop. Dylan knew it was now or never to get these creatures' and their master's attention. He bolted, quickly surpassing twice his normal speed and started into the building. He didn't know how, but he had to get a hit off on the figure, if just to get his attention off of whatever he had planned. He paused on the third floor a moment when he began to hear police sirens, but quickly picked his pace back up to try to get to the rooftop.

When Dylan burst onto the roof, the young man dressed in the dark grey hoodie and black jeans turned his attention onto Meterro.

"Ah one of my spectators, come to get a closer look. A pity, seeing as you won't be able to share in this." As he gestured off of the rooftop, the young man's sunken eyes and bedraggled hair betrayed weeks of either sleeplessness or of too little rest. This was someone determined to do this. And as far as Dylan could tell, he was as determined as Dylan was to keep him from it. However the air about him wasn't one of desperation, there was confidence, bordering arrogance, and a hint of fanaticism that Dylan hadn't really ever seen before. It was as if he expected someone to look up to him, just because he was abusing innocent people and their property.

"You see, people like you, people who want to fight back, all they can do when they are so outclassed is watch in despair as natural selection does its work. The stronger take what they need- no, what they deserve- from those who don't. Believe me friend, if I know anything, I know what you're feeling, being just slightly better than the rest of the mob of humanity, but held back because its the 'right' thing to do, because it levels the playing field. What I don't know is why you just tried to come in and bat out of your league. Ever since the Smiling Fool retired, those who aren't fit enough, mentally or physically, don't survive, and you've just revealed yourself as such."

As the police sirens blared ever closer, Dylan just stood, fists balled up. He was caught in a moment of hesitation. It had took him just as long to realize that he had stopped using his quirk somewhere on the way up.

"And what about you, using creatures like this, creatures created by experimenting on kidnapped people." Dylan shouted at him. His words came from a place of conviction, from the knowledge of a victim of things so similar to these "You know that's what they are!"

"You're going to try to rail on me for using tools to help me survive? _What a joke!_ That said, you've seen these things before, and yet here you are trying to- do what, exactly?" brown haired villain posed the question. Dylan's rushed plan quickly crossing his mind as a sinister smile crossed his face.

"Oh, you wanted to save people, even if all you could be was an additional target. If I were anyone else I'd praise you for your self-sacrifice, but I think we both know how it plays out from here..."

" _Do we now?!"_ A new voice and two new figures joined in the rooftop face-off. The accent to the voice clearly gave it's owner away as English.

Two men had just landed behind Meterro, and they quickly moved to flank him and then separate him from the villain. One man was dressed in what looked like streamlined half-plate armor with an armet-like helmet and mask, only made with a little more modern looking material, the other sported a navy blue jumpsuit, with a pair of lightning like pinstripes running up the front and crossing over his shoulders until meeting halfway down his back. The latter of them quickly spoke. His voice like gravel as he growled out the words.

"Where are the Noumu?!"

 _"Why, right here of course._ "

* * *

 _ **Alrighty Everyone, I think the tension is sufficiently built, get ready for the all out fight coming up between these two heroes and the puppet Noumu next chapter.**_

 _ **Please feel free to leave reviews, I'd like to continue to improve and refine my writing skill, and anyone's help is appreciated**_

 _ **Until then, PLUS ULTRA!**_


	4. Second Impact

Warhammer and his compatriot, Excalibur stood across from Macht as they questioned the villain. Their stare-down was tense to say the least. He had seen the hulking masses of muscle and raw power begin to tear into a pair of buildings close by, but opted to head for their puppeteer. The Impactful Hero could end the fight more quickly this way. MQSI had been a knock-down drag out fight between the first Noumu and himself, he dealt with the second in a much easier fashion when the controller had been apprehended.  
And here he was about to face down two more abominations created by a man drunk with so much power that it took All-Might himself to end his terror. It would take some serious thought and concentration to bring this villain down. The possibility of having to fight both at once was not lost on him. There was no room for mistakes here, none.

The pair of beasts, after a few moments, landed on the roof next to Macht. It had taken little investigation to actually narrow down who had gotten the illegally smuggled creatures, the trail was obvious, the creatures were shipped in through New Orleans to St. Louis, and carted on a truck to a warehouse in Gary, Indiana. The evidence implicating this man had been too easy to follow. The chance someone else was involved in orchestrating these attacks well above Macht's head was inevitable. Whoever it was had set up Macht to take the fall

"I don't know who gave those creatures to you, or how, but- God forgive me- I don't really care right now. they are a danger to the public- and they need to be captured- if you refuse to turn them over we will have to arrest you." Warhammer was short in both phrase and patience. As the standoff continued for another moment, the villain's smug smile grew into a twisted grin.

"If you want the Noumu so badly, then take them. I'm not so sure that they'd come willingly though..." As the Noumu turned to face the top American Pro, his mind drifted. the civilian had no idea what he had gotten himself into. Warhammer had to protect him, at any cost.

"Excalibur, get him out of here."

"Are you sure, old friend?"

"I've handled a pair of these beasts before," Warhammer paused a moment, cracking his neck and his knuckles. He met the twisted grin of the puppeteer villain with a confident smile, "What's two more?"

* * *

Dylan found himself pulled away from Macht and the Noumu by a chain. but that was the least of his worries. Warhammer quickly clapped both his hands together, creating a shock-wave that sent the Noumu flying off the roof. Macht had been knocked off his feet and into the waist-high barrier around the edge of the roof- still quite conscious and only minutely injured- from the shock of suddenly having the wind knocked out of him.

Meterro's eyes widened as one of the Noumu that had risen to its feet down on the street below looked back towards him and the rooftop, while the other one knocked farther away looked as if he hadn't heard an order and remained motionless. Macht was definitely out of earshot of any whisper, and would have to yell to order these things about.

Excalibur quickly took advantage of the opening and hauled Dylan down the back side of the building. Both rescued and the rescuer could only barely hear conversation beginning again on the rooftop.

"Hunker down a couple buildings away and wait for police to arrive on scene, this could get hairy rather quickly." the Chivalrous Hero quickly used his chain finger to climb back up the side of the building.

All that running, making sure his friends took shelter, just to have a hero show up, Dylan almost resented it in a way, someone else stepping on what he wanted to be a noble and selfless deed. Truthfully, It was better than the self sacrifice plan that he had originally thought up.

* * *

It took most of Warhammer's focused strength to make any progress on subduing the first and closest Noumu. The strength the creature wielded was on par with the beast he had fought that year and a half ago at MQSI, of that there was no doubt. The dueling pair traded evermore destructive blows across the rooftops of western Chicago. Even this far out, the skyline in sight was a reminder to Warhammer why he had to beat this madman and his pet monstrosities.

Both he and the Noumu had traversed more than two blocks in the heat of battle, sometimes meeting and trading blows midair. As the Noumu attempted to land a hit to knock him down he braced himself. The hit landed home and sent him plummeting cracking the asphalt on impact.

It was getting close, but that wasn't the end of the fight. Warhammer had worked this out in their mid-air bouts, he just had to wait just a minute longer. Albeit, that was before he'd been knocked to the ground. Macht had been following, obviously exerting his will onto the creature. He took the opportunity to gloat, and gave Warhammer that minute, as he began to celebrate his victory.

"Oh come now, is the Top American Pro-hero really going to be downed so easily? I knew these creatures were powerful but this is just… So easy," the villain called out from the rooftop of another apartment building, equally taunting and gloating from- what would seem to some onlookers- a position of power, a position where he thought he controlled the situation. "Come on now Warhammer, I expected better of you. Get up, keep going, or else I'll have the Noumu finish you and then take down that would-be target of a boy."

At this, Warhammer began to push himself up off the ground. The pavement cracked further from the Noumu landing a few yards from him. With nothing but street behind it, he knew the time to end this one had arrived. Warhammer had let the creature push him to a place where he would have the advantage and more importantly wouldn't damage much. Small sparks began to emanate from his calves growing and arcing down his boots eventually starting to ripple across his chest and shoulders. Warhammer focused on clenching his right fist as he rose to his full stature. He stood only a foot shorter than the tower of muscle that was this genetically engineered horror. But his stature in comparison didn't betray the fact he had this creature and its puppeteer where he wanted them.

"You don't have to worry about me giving up," Warhammer bellowed. "People like you think you're above society- above reproach- because of your strength, and it's because villains like you would abuse your quirks and use others around you that I stand here!"

Warhammer reached within himself and grabbed onto the strength he'd taken from every blow that had landed on him then magnified and concentrated it all in his fist and arm. He had let the creature push him, if just a little. A low but constant ache began from his right shoulder as his muscles strained to hold back the full force of the impending swing. The energy he was calling upon was incredible in terms of sheer amount much less that he was focusing it into a single point. The lightning crackling over his skin began to arc back into is right fist as he assumed an offensive stance.

As the Noumu began to close the distance, Warhammer's eyes darted quickly to the puppeteer on the roof and, for the half second as he wound up the swing, he caught a glimpse of the villain's own hubris dawning on him.

Even at a shout, the words he spoke as he landed the blow would only barely be heard before the sheer force from a sonic boom and a titanic gust of wind drowned out the hero's voice.

 _ **"Terminal Impact!"**_

* * *

[EOC A/N]

God damn, if that wasn't fun to write... at midnight the morning before I have to be at work early. eh, oh well.

So, my story's first PLUS ULTRA moment, that's a thing. Leave any reviews you'd like, I'll keep any suggestions in mind as I continue on this journey, I'll try to get then next chapter out before the end of the month. However I've no idea with work schedules and the winter holidays slowly creeping up if I will be able to.

In other news and in a style true to the manga and anime I'm going to start offering the major characters and their quirks at the end of each chapter. We'll go with two this time around to jumpstart this

 **Dylan Meterro** _ **\- Quirk :** Overclock **\- Dylan can selectively heighten the speed at which his neurons fire off in any part of his nervous system, from his brain to the nerve endings in his toes.**_ ** _Though it can improve his reaction speed, it only has marginal effect on his running speed, having to be increased to at least a factor of 4 to make any marked improvements to general speed, but leading to exhaustion._ **_**. Overusing his quirk expends more energy than his body can make, often making his spurts using it at full blast few and far between**_ _ **to prevent fatigue.**_

 **Martin Fide** aka the _**Chivalrous hero,**_ **Excalibur _\- Quirk:_** _Metal-morphosis **\- He has the ability to morph any limbs or appendages into any metallic weapon or simple tools, he's even able to reinforce his skin and bone with metallic properties for a short time. However he can only select metals he's come into physical contact with within the last 24 hours, the amount of time he can use his quirk is proportional to** **the complexity of the alloy of metal he was last in contact with and how much iron is in his regular diet.**_


	5. A Second Starting Line

**_Sorry that it's been so long but work has been absolute hell for me, and I haven't really had the chance to work on this in depth except on my sick days, which is precisely when I was finishing this up.  
_** ** _Just a warning here ahead of the actual thing, if graphic violence isn't really your style, the entire section in italics is the bit to avoid, You have been warned._**

* * *

Warhammer's punch drew the attention of the national and international media alike in the days following the attack in Chicago. While All-Might and the heroes of Japan had struggled to best a number of these creatures even with a united front, Warhammer had defeated four of them single-handed- and moreover- in extended bouts similar to the first incident at Yuuei High to boot. His rise to the international limelight could have been- and often was- called meteoric. The reporters had taken their notes on him well enough in the past to recognize his combat flair.

All of that said, Dylan hadn't paid attention to the news for the past couple weeks. The first two days he had learned that he had fractured his leg and nearly shattered the bones in his foot and would need to wear a boot for a week until a doctor with a bone healing quirk could arrive to reset it and heal his foot correctly.

He had done what he could, but it hadn't been enough. Upon hearing the reality of his world now, he quite literally couldn't stomach the news, the return of the memory of the day alone, and then the reminder of the whole affair being put on loop for 72 consecutive hours.

* * *

 _Dylan ran back to his apartment building after Excalibur went off to help Warhammer or try to capture Macht. By the time he got to the door, he noticed it wasn't locked, his eyes darted back to the street corner where he, Natalie and Ben had been standing before most of the debacle. Ben's car was still out there, the unmoving Noumu much to close for any civilian to be moving near, much less one of his best friends._

 _Dylan's gaze was drawn by movement as the creature stirred. It took a hero the calibre of Warhammer to hold one of these monstrosities back, and he was tied up managing the other one. It was everything he could do to get out there quickly enough before the Noumu saw the pair of them_

 _"Ben, what the hell are you doing out here?! I told you and Natalie to go inside!"_

 _"Dylan! Thank god you survived!" He was looking through the back seat of his car for something, while the creature groggily rose to its feet. It looked blankly down the street towards the building it had been knocked from. As if by some unheard command from the puppeteer who had followed Warhammer away from their initial scene, the Noumu turned it's head to face the car next to it. The two young men froze as it drug its eyes across the vehicle. This thing that used to be human was now an engine of destruction meant to be manipulated from any distance near or far. Regardless of the distance Warhammer had knocked it away, It had not been knocked so senseless that It forgot its last order._

 _Dylan barely had time enough to pull Ben back away as the creature flipped the car into the third story building behind them, leaving them on an empty street corner with no cover, no way to escape the lethal blows of the Noumu. Dylan stood, ready to engage the creature, and shouted to his friend._

 _"Ben, Get out of here!"_

 _"Dylan, You'll-"_

 _"That's the chance I'll have to take. Now, GO!" Dylan shouted at the creature, "C'mon UGLY, I'm the one you're after."_

 _Better to die saving you than to live while leaving you behind, Dylan thought. The creature moved as if it had turned its focus from Ben._

 _The Noumu punched at Meterro twice while he circled the creature, Dylan all the while hoping Ben had the sense to run back to the building. After pausing for a moment he was prepared to dodge the next blow the creature had wound up. In a surprise, the next strike met little more than the ground as Ben used his quirk to send a mass of loose stone to knock the beasts punch off trajectory._

 _"NO, BEN, RUN!"_

 _No sooner had Dylan finished those words than the monster had grabbed Ben by the ankles and slammed him back-first into a tree. The snap of his bones on impact was audible even from Dylan's distance. If any of his ribs were intact before, the crash landing from the Noumu throwing him aside onto a set of concrete steps shattered the rest._

 _"No... No... No! NO!" Dylan's friend lay unconscious a few yards away, thrown away like trash._

 _That creature would pay. Macht would pay for bringing these monstrosities to Chicago. They would pay for hurting one of the only people he had to depend on in this world. His vision started to go red as the Noumu turned to face him again. Dylan began to feel the world slow to a crawl, until for a moment, time itself seemed to stop._

 _This thing had it coming. In a microsecond to any witness of the fight, Meterro began to strike the creature._

 _The first made little impact because of the creature's Quirk, but The flurry of blows landing upon the coal skinned beast set the thing off it's balance. As Meterro threw kick after kick after punch after tackle, he felt with every blow, the creature's speed increase, the sway of the trees picking up speed in the distance. Dylan couldn't keep this up, his body simply couldn't maintain the strength at which he was using his quirk. Even still the Noumu was teetering from the sheer ferocity of the onslaught, the punches and kicks connecting within fractions of a second, faster than the beast's quirk could activate. The Noumu staggered back a step as Dylan rendered the final blow. Meterro brought his heel to bear on the creature's brain and kicked its disfigured maw into the pavement with a resounding crack. Meterro wasn't sure if it was from the creature hitting the pavement, his foot on the beast, or some unknown middle-ground, but for a moment, he had forced it down._

 _After a few deep breaths, and a few second's of relative silence, Meterro's breathing grew ragged quickly. As the adrenaline and rage ebbed from his mind, a searing pain from his entire right leg caught up with him. Given the amount of energy he had used, Dylan knew he only had a moment or two of consciousness left. Dylan struggled to hold onto every little bit of awareness he had, that Noumu was stirring again. All he had hadn't been enough, going beyond his limit hadn't been enough. As his legs buckled he fell to a knee, forcing himself to stay alert, but to little avail. Just before he fell forward, unconscious, he felt a gust of wind as a red form, abounding in a green lightning struck the then rising Noumu back into the pavement._

* * *

Meterro got off the L near a bus stop, one that would take him to the renamed planetarium just off the Lake. By the time he arrived at the Aldrin Planetarium there were quite a few families enjoying one last hurrah of summer before the school year started proper. It wasn't Downtown by any stretch of the mind but it was still a center for foot traffic. Amongst the bustling crowd Dylan just wanted nothing more than to be done with the week- no, this entire month. So much pain and destruction caused by some quirk enhanced human beings. It was appalling that these people a would go about their daily lives as if nothing happened.

A week earlier Dylan sat beside Natalie at Ben's viewing and funeral with both her parents and Ben's family. While she visited him during his week in the hospital Dylan noticed something on Natalie's finger that hadn't been there the last time they met up before the whole debacle with the Noumu. Upon seeing it, his heart sank further. Ben had finally proposed to Natalie, and now she had to bury her fiancé. During the funeral, Dylan silently mourned the life that Natalie would have had with Ben and his passed friend as well.

A man in a dark grey suit had joined the funeral party shortly before the service began. After Ben's body had been laid to rest, he walked up to Meterro and spoke with him for a short while, telling him to meet him on the lake shore just south of the aquarium and planetarium. It was strange seeing the 6'7" titan of a man that was Warhammer in his civilian get-up, much less being told to meet him in the middle of the day in a pretty well travelled area.

"I told you to get here by 11." Warhammer still refused to mince his words.

"First, It's 10:59. Second, why did you want to meet me?" Dylan was many things that month and that day specifically, stress from his bill situation being only the last thing that got added to the pile, but not late. He refused to let himself be that anymore.

"Walk with me for a minute, kid. We've got things to discuss." Warhammer began trudging down the beach. September's usual morning chill had worn off a bit inland, but right on Lake Michigan's edge it was still pretty brisk. It sufficed to say that Dylan was happy to have brought his coat. As they got some distance from the stairs leading back to the parking lot, Warhammer continued, "I understand you used your quirk on that Noumu."

"Yeah," Dylan replied curtly, seemingly realizing why the Pro-hero had brought it up.

"And that more importantly you used it to subdue the creature. You refused to back down, you responded to Macht before any Pros arrived, which though incredibly reckless was something I haven't really seen in quite a while. You're lucky another pro Arrived on-scene, though. If he hadn't, you might not have made it out alive either," Warhammer said, pausing only to interrupt his own train of thought with the question he should have asked to begin with,

"What made you step in in the first place"?

"I've seen what those things can do first hand. I couldn't stand by and let MQSI happen again." Warhammer visibly recoiled after hearing that last sentence.

"You mean to say you were-" Warhammer hung on the end of the word as he stared forward for a moment. Then, he gripped the bridge of his nose, "damnit, I knew you looked familiar."

For a moment, both Dylan and Warhammer stood in silence, one out of shame for his blindness, the other short for words after mourning a friend. Warhammer was the first to break the silence.

"Frankly, MQSI's shutdown was a two-fold loss for Chicago. No only did we lose one of the most advanced heroics support programs in the country, we lost three years worth of Quirk Law majors. And they-"

"Would have been some of the first picks to join with your agency." Dylan finished as Warhammer paused. When Warhammer nodded Meterro continued.

"I got a recruitment offer from your agency a couple days before those Noumu wrecked the block. I was going to save it for a last resort, but I'm now a month back on rent with no car and no job. I think it's time for last resorts"

"Are you sure you know what signing on like this entails?

"I'm out of other options," Meterro paused again, "I burned too many bridges to go back."

"If you're serious about this, you'll need to make some serious progress in the next weeks. Being frank, with your involvement in that Noumu situation, If I don't have you trained up by the end of the investigation into that whole mess, you'll face vigilantism charges." Warhammer said flatly, turning to face Lake Michigan. "I've thought about it, and as demand for talent like you showed rises, I'll need a personal shadow. and I don't want to have to mess with other heroes and sidekicks, and their careers. Besides that, I've needed another training bender, I've let myself get a little too beat up." Dylan looked at the pro quizzically at his last remark, people had theorized what his quirk was for years, but much like All-Might's it wasn't known to the public.

"But that can wait. We need to get our formal introductions out of the way. You know me by my hero name, as Warhammer. Since you're going to be training with me, having you know my actual civilian name would be wise so you don't give me up to some of these vultures people call journalists. My name is Geoffrey Blake. " he said as the pair began to walk back towards the lot.

* * *

Within a handful of days, Meterro was on his way to a training facility on the other side of the state-line. It was almost surreal. Over the course of a handful of days he had went from a jobless civilian, in the midst of an ever increasingly violent war between the heroes and villains worldwide, to a side-kick in training. Dylan swore left and right that first day that he was going to have at least ten different paper-cuts from all of the various forms he had to fill out, but at the end of the first day, Meterro had everything lined up (legally speaking) to start sidekick work.

If the first day was just paperwork- not just for Dylan but Warhammer's support crew, too- then the second day was a crash course in support gear and its uses. Dylan worked with the crew for two hours on concept and design alone for his suit.

The color pallet at least was simple enough, since Warhammer is my… mentor I think would be the best word, contrasting with his colors will make for a unique enough statement, he thought to himself as he saw the luggage in behind his seat in the SUV. Meterro turned his gaze to the passing cityscape. Even just driving on the interstate, the once abandoned and still crumbling industrial yards of the city of Gary, Indiana- infamous in that part of the country- were easily recognized.

Arguably hit the hardest when martial law was implemented in US during the first days when quirks became widespread, Gary became a refuge city for the Quirked from Chicago suffering all the major criminal activity that that entailed. It never truly had recovered, even after the dawning of the Age of Heroes as many had dubbed the modern day. Gary was a testament to the flaws of mankind, once its greed, during the era of automation in the late 20th and early 21st century, and its fear, when Quirks emerged. Only now that Pro Heroes had invested in the old industrial lots had there been any real life brought into the city. The once dead industrial yards were being used, the abandoned, obsolete machinery and structures made a decent enough city-scale training facility. The few six or seven story buildings littered throughout that were just too new to look like they fit in, the US Heroics checkpoints and their attached police stations were quite obvious to any onlooker.

"Mr. Meterro, Phone call from the lead car, would you like to speak to Mr. Warhammer, yourself?"

"I would, please"

… Meterro bided his time during the inevitable pause while the screen lit up with its usual branding, the boot up seemed to last forever.

"Meterro," Warhammer's visage filled the screen as he greeted the sidekick-in-training. "Are you ready for the roughest three months of your life?"

* * *

 _ **Sorry again about the delay**_  
 _ **psssst. can you tell I'm teasing his costume for a reason, I want to have his first suit up be at just the right moment! Soon, I promise.**_

 _ **Until next time. PLUS ULTRA!**_


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